Heaven wait (Hashirama x Madara)

17. Frustration (Hashirama)

When our practice stood finished, a cream brick building with black details and a garden that also held a road for arriving and departing ambulances, we were three doctors and five nurses strong. We were a dream team, and had trained together for two weeks and now had one week left before we opened up for arriving patients.

But we still needed to hire one more nurse.

The five we had so far were all meticulously chosen by me and Catherine to create a good working environment, and so far, we've been very happy with our choices. There was Belinda, a forty-something from Jamaica whose sass and good spirits would work wonders to keep patients calm. There was young Brian, who was twenty-one and had just graduated nursing school in England. There was robust Melissa, who lifted weights and lived with her wife close-by. There was stern and frightfully intelligent Johan from Sweden with the moustache that would chock all cardiac arrest patients back to life. And there was young and attractive Connie, a blonde girl who looked like a sweet doll but had the no-nonsense attitude of someone who had worked in criminal care, which she had.

But we were still one nurse short. We had interviewed several, but me and Catherine had agreed that both of us must accept our future colleague in order for us to even consider hiring them, and so far, it hadn't happened. And since we opened up within the week, we were running out of time.

But then, Catherine came into my office, which I had adorned with plants, with a big grin on her face.

"I've got one!" she said, waving a paper in her hand that I guessed was a paper copy of an e-mail.

"A potential nurse?"

"A potential nurse! And this one sounds really good! I booked an interview today at two pm, hope that's fine with you."

I thanked her, and didn't even bother to check the name of the candidate.

Each office in the building had its own ensuite. It was a feature that wasn't strictly necessary, to be fair, but we had had the budget for it, and so decided to add it. I was splashing cold water on my face in mine, trying to gain some energy for the interview.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked tired, the way I had done ever since Madara had left me, every day more so than the previous. It didn't matter what I did, and I did do everything in my immediate power; slept seven or eight hours a day, exercised, got some daylight every day, ate fairly good... But none of that seemed to matter to seep out the last piece of tiredness out of me, the one caused by the absence of him.

I took a towel, like, an actual towel, and dried my face. Then, a thought struck me.

Why was Catherine so excited about this interview? And why hadn't she offered me the candidate's name?

It couldn't be... Could it?

A wave of realisation hit me. I checked the time on my watch. I was late. I ran out of the bathroom, into Catherine's office where the interview was to be held, and...

"There he is!"

Catherine beamed at me. Why did she beam at me when I was late? She should be upset. It must be because in the chair in front of her, back turned to me, was...

My heart leapt when I saw the black hair. Time stopped, took me back three years to the exact moment when me and Madara parted for the last time. How old was he now? Twenty-seven? Twenty-eight?

"Madara."

"My name is Joe."

I frowned. What? I looked at Catherine. She was frowning, too, looking at me. I looked at the man in the chair in front of her, and in it sat an amicable Asian man with a blue shirt, glasses and a toothy grin.